


A Pressing Matter

by Taupefox59



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, French Press Coffee, Gen, Multi, OT3, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 03:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1843486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taupefox59/pseuds/Taupefox59
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a surprise to all of them. Somehow they had managed to miss each other for all these years, but eventually, it was bound to happen. </p><p>The day that Pepper, Rhodey and Tony discover that they have matching soul marks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Pressing Matter

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it would be really funny if Tony, the crazy intelligent genius, didn't know what his mark was. So, in trying to find something that Tony wouldn't recognize, I went to kitchen implements, because clearly Tony doesn't spend much time in the kitchen.
> 
> If you aren't familiar with french press coffee, [ this website](http://www.allaboutcoffee.thoughtyoumayask.com/bodum-french-press-eileen-french-press-components/) explains it very well.
> 
> The mark is the plunger part of a french press, which looks like this:  
> 
> 
> This was inspired by [ this tumblr post](http://hobbitkaiju.tumblr.com/post/87631597843/akireyta-darkmistandodddreams-i-need-more/) and another one I can no longer find. 'Cause I'm super awesome like that. Heck yes.
> 
> This is un-beta'd, so if you catch anything, please let me know! Constructive criticism always welcome!

 

 

Tony thought he had a mark. He had a mottled brown figure in the center of his back, over his spine, in between his shoulder blades. He'd gotten looks of it, turning and twisitng in the mirror. It looked like a gear, or some kind of pressure-press. He'd spent months looking for a piece like it in his father's labs, always keeping an eye out for the metal plate surrounded by spring.

He turned sixteen. His parents died. He searched and searched and when he couldn't find anything, he figured it was just like everything else. It didn't mean anything. IF he couldn't find it, then he didn't need it. He'd make his own way, just like he always had. He decided he didn't care, and never looked at the Mark again.

It had taken Pepper a long time to realize that she had a mark. It was about the length of her index finger on the back of her right thigh. At first, she'd thought it was a smattering of particularly insistent freckles. She got to know it better when she got old enough to start shaving her legs. Even then, it took her a while to place what it was.

Pepper had been in Spain on a class trip, they'd stopped in a small, coastal town for the day. They'd been dropped off to go to the beach, but they would be returning later that day to the city where their hotel was situated. Pepper had wandered off the beach and found herself in a beautiful, small cafe. She'd ordered a coffee to warm up from the sea-breeze. It came to her in a tall glass cylinder, a warn, copper top sticking out, waiting to be pressed down, forcing the coffee grounds to the bottom of the container, so only the fresh, warm coffee would be porn into the waiting cup.

It took her a moment to place the familiarity of the device. It slotted into place, like pulling on a perfectly-fitting pair of shoes. She reached down, pressing gently at the skin where her Mark was, and then poured herself a cup of coffee.

Rhodey was gutted when he lost his Mark. It had been delicate light-caramel lines, just above his left hip bone. It had cleared into a long line, which smoothly transitioned into a spring-rimmed disc. It had looked just like the filter on the french press his dad brought on camping trips. He'd lost it with the surgery that took out his appendix. Now his mark was obscured by a thick J of scar tissue. He had some pictures of it, from summer days, when he'd shirtless at the pool, or doing yardwork out back. He'd never been so grateful for his mother's sentimentality than he had in that moment.

He'd found a few of the best pictures after the surgery had happened. Now they were kept in a safety-deposit box. Rhodey was fairly certain at this point in his life, he'd never need them, but he never opened the box. The image of the press was burned into his mind. He'd only need it if he somehow had to prove it's existence to a match. Rhodey wasn't waiting for miracles. He had enough to be doing in his life than waiting to find a soul mate.

 

 

Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and Colonel James Rhodes of the United States Air Force have a lot in common. What they don't have in common is time to spend together. They know each other fairly well, as those with mutual friends often do, but they were never really in a place to directly seek out the others company.

Rhodes is a colonel. He has found his career by navigating his way through life in the army. He does it well; he has the respect of those he commands, and enough power to pull strings when he needs to (if most of the string-pulling happens because Tony has gone and gotten himself in trouble, again, well, the less said about that the better). He has his friends in the military, because it's impossible to make it to Colonel and not have people who at your side, who have your back. (Rhodey knows some people who have done it, actually, but he makes an effort to never have to spend time with them. They have a tendency to burn the world around them and then be able to lay the blame squarely on someone else's shoulders.)

Pepper spends a lot of her time with Tony. It makes sense; she started out as his personal assistant. She got used to building her day around his. After she became CEO of Stark Industries (and Tony became Iron Man) a strange sort of regression happened. Their lives were no longer solely orbiting each other. They were dating, but Tony was spending more of his time in his labs, building things that would never be produced for manufacture. At the same time as they were working through how to be completely unprofessional with each other, they were also building up their lives as separate people.

Pepper was flying around the world, maintaining the company and moving it forward. She has her own personal assistant now, a whip-smart young woman named Michelle that Pepper poached unabashedly from S.H.I.E.L.D. and was eternally grateful for. Pepper could play hard-ball better than anyone else currently in the game, but sometimes it was a relief to be able to leave the boardroom of bitchy old men and never have to worry about explaining why it was necessary to be able to conceal a comfortable bra beneath a power suit.

 

 

It happened one day in Malibu. Tony had kidnapped Rhodey with claims of a mandatory software overhaul for the War Machine suit. Tony was holding his signature for ransom, and swore that he would only sign Peppers forms if she agreed to take a day off. Somehow, he managed to get both of his friends down to the beach.

Tony never took his shirt(s) off in public anymore, it was far too important to keep the secret of his arc-reactor. Pepper and Rhodey, however, were dressed for the weather. Pepper had made them stop on the way out to get a shade umbrella, which Rhodey was setting up. Tony went to the car to drag out the cooler they'd packed for the day, and the sheet that he'd brought for them to put down.

Tony may have pulled of his bed that morning, but JARVIS had suggested he bring something to put over the sand. A sheet went over sand. He really didn't understand why his A.I. had sounded so disappointed by the plan. He didn't know why Rhodey and Pepper looked equally disappointed. It was a summer-weight picnic blanket.

Pepper stripped down to her bikini, and pulled out her 85 SPF sunscreen. Rhodey could laugh all he liked. She'd had a lifetime of learning her red-hair induced limits on being out in the sun. He paused when she stood to begin rubbing the lotion onto her legs.

"You have a Mark." He said, pointing to the mark on her thigh. Pepper straightened, startled.

"Yes." She said, clearly wary of where the conversation was heading.

"It's a french press." He said. He lowered his hand, but he still was still in shock at the possibility. He'd truly stopped looking for a match.

Pepper stared at him.

"Rhodey?"

Rhodey snapped back to life at the sound of his name. He grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and ripped it off his head. He dropped it on the ground, and his hand came to rest over his scar, where his Mark used to be clear, detailed lines.

Rhodey hadn't moved, he was staring at Pepper like he'd never seen her before, and he was scrambling to find the words to explain, "Mine too." he finally managed to push out.

"What?" Pepper, asked, surprise clear in her tone. Finding a match to her Mark had truly never been something she'd considered.

"I had appendicitis as a kid. The surgery messed it up." Rhodey pulled his fingers away from the scar by sheer force of will and walked forward slowly. Pepper stared down at his abdomen as he came closer. He stopped when he was arms-length from her.

She took a step towards him, eyes trained to the lightened lines on his dark skin. There was silence for a moment, before she looked up.

"I see it." She said.

"I have pictures," he said, but she cut him off.

"I don't need them." She said, "I see it." She gently placed her fingers over the scar.

They let the silence spin around them for a moment, interrupted only by the relentless crash of the ocean.

Then it was interrupted by Tony.

"So. This looks like fun." He said, stepping between them easily, dropping the cooler in the shade of the umbrella. He turned back to his friends who were still staring at each other.

"Can I play too? I win at awkward staring contests. Really. You should see me at board meetings."

"Tony..." Pepper's voice was halting and fragile. The relationship was still so new. She didn't know how to

The moment stretched.

"Seriously, you guys," Tony said, "Did someone die or something?"

"Tony," Pepper tried again. Rhodey took a deep breath and continued for her.

"We have matching Marks."

Tony froze., every muscle in his body going tense. "I'm sorry. You have what now?"

Pepper took a deep breath, and took a step away from Rhodey. "We have matching soul marks."

"And you didn't know until just now?" Tony's disbelief was clear.

"Mine isn't much of a Mark anymore," Rhodey said.

Tony's eyes were drawn to the scar on Rhodey's stomach. The scar he'd seen before, countless time, when drunken parties had turned into hungover mornings on the couch. Every time Rhodey had dragged him out of the lab for exercise. "What was it?"

Pepper turned, and pointed to her own mark.

Tony was strangely quiet for several seconds. "I have one too."

Pepper whirled around. "What?"

Tony glanced nervously around the empty beach, before turning his back to them, and ripping off his shirt, and clutching it protectively over his chest. After all, it only took one telephoto lens for his secret to be out.

He felt Peppers delicate fingers on his back. "Oh, Tony," her voice was full of something like wonder. Suddenly Tony felt another, larger hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Rhodey standing behind him, right next to Pepper. He felt something tight twist and settle in his chest. Rhodey and Pepper joined hands, and that's when it struck.

It wasn't a feeling Tony had ever had before. It was close to what he'd felt with Pepper, when they'd first decided to truly honestly try at having a relationship. Only...there was something more, now. The worry that he'd felt with Pepper; that he'd be too much, that Iron Man would be too much...it was fading in the solid, steady presence of Rhodey. Rhodey who was the other side of dedication. Tony realized that he was standing between the people who would be able to keep up with him in virtually every facet of his life. Rhodey, the man who kept him standing up, and Pepper, the woman who kept him doing right.

Rhodey could feel a heat on his stomach, right under his scar, but that was distant. It was a spark of warmth against a waterfall of clarity. The feeling didn't hit at once. It wasn't a lightening strike. It rolled in like cold air through an open window in winter. At first, there were just hints of what it would their connection would become, until suddenly it felt like being dipped underwater in the Antarctic. It wasn't a bad feeling, it was a cool, steady feeling; the unwavering support of cement in the shade of a hot day. It made sense, when he thought about it. He got to be the support structure for one of the most incredible people he'd ever come across. He could hold strong, as he always had, and give Tony a framework to build on. In return, he'd be pushed into newer, better places that he never could have imagined on his own. Then there was the level-headed Pepper, sharp-witted and brilliant, and so much more aware of the politics of the world. Rhodey knew that for all of their firepower, Pepper would be the true protector of them all. She was the one who would know which wheels to grease and which elbows to grease and what favours to cash to keep them all from crashing and burning. Rhodey was good enough at politics to survive as a colonel, but he didn't play the game; not like Pepper could.

Pepper felt like she was aware of every atom that made up her body. It was the expansive, all-consuming rush of awareness, pinpointing her connection with the two men she now stood with. She could feel the permanence of it settle into the microfissures of her bones, seeping into the marrow to fill her up completely. She would walk the balance with Tony, as she always had, combining the guiding hand he didn't know how to ask for with the freedom he needed to explore. She would let him go whenever he needed to leave, because she knew that he would always come back; and when he did he would be sparking with the kind of energy that the world couldn't contain. He would rewrite the way the world worked, and he would bring her along for every step of the way. Rhodey could provide the steadiness that Tony could never be able to offer. She would have a stable place to plant her dreams, and Rhodey's determination and loyalty would make everything flower. She would be there if he ever ended up on the wrong side of a politician, and she would be there if he ever needed help with talking Tony out of a really bad idea. She'd also be there for every moment when he couldn't save everyone, for every time there weren't any answers left to be found by taking a suit into the sky.

 

They stood in silence, marvelling at the newness of the bond that came from soul marks finding their match. They could all feel the tug, the something that connected them with each other. The tide of the ocean continued to pull itself towards the horizon. After a few moments of adjustment, Tony turned back around to face his two soul mates.

"How is it that we've managed to not have that happen before now?" Tony asked.

"Tony." Pepper said, in her tone of fond exasperation that seemed to only come out for him, "I think it's been about two years since I've seen James at an event that didn't involve formal dress."

"And apparently all three of us have to be touching." Rhodey added, then paused, "Tony. If you knew you had the Mark, why didn't you recognize it before?"

Tony shifted awkwardly, he was still holding his shirt tight to his chest but he was rolling his shoulders like he was gearing up for a fight.

"What...is it, exactly?" Tony asked.

"What is what?" Rhodey replied, confusion evident.

"The..."Tony flapped his hand, ineffectually, "The Mark thing. What is it? When I was young I thought maybe it was a gear for something."

Rhodey raised an eyebrow. "It's a coffee press. You seriously don't know what that is?"

"I don't make coffee!" Tony said, "I just drink it!"

Pepper raised an eyebrow, but had a fond smile on her face. "Really, Tony?"

"Why would I ever need to know how to press coffee? That's why I have people bring me espresso!"

Rhodey turned to Pepper "Apparently we need to re-educate him in the ways of coffee."

Pepper looked up at the sun, and then out to the sparkling water. "I think I've had enough beach. Shall we start with the coffee eduction now?"

"I think so." Rhodey replied. He walked toward the cooler Tony had dragged out, and Pepper took the umbrella.

"Is this a bedsheet, Tony?" Asked Rhodey, as he wadded the fabric up so he could carry lit with the cooler.

"Maybe." Came the petulant reply.

"Tony. That's from your bed." Pepper said.

"Yeah. And we're not using my bed right now, so what's the problem?"

Rhodey just sighed, and shook his head, before picking everything up and starting towards the car.

"I think we're going to have a conversation about what should and should not be used for picnic-ing purposes at some point."

"See if I ever take you on a picnic again." Tony grumbled.

"How about next picnic you just let me pack?" Pepper suggested back.

They'd reached the car. Rhody had finished loading everything. He took the umbrella from Pepper, slid it into the car and closed the trunk. Tony slid into the back seat to pull his shirts back on, safe from the prying cameras of the world.

Rhodey took advantage of Tony's occupied state to slide behind the wheel. Pepper took her place in the passenger seat.

"My car. I drive." Tony called from the back seat.

"Doesn't look like it from where I'm sitting!" Rhodey said, with a smile. He turned the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot, before flooring the gas pedal and speeding out onto the highway.

It was strange and new, this thing between them; but they could all feel that it was going to be wonderful.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit [ me on tumblr!](http://taupefox59.tumblr.com/)


End file.
